


Spring Forward, Fall Back

by Rellanka



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Death of characters mentioned but not permanent, Every character friendly, Fix-It, Infinity War spoilers, M/M, Maybe - Freeform, Mentions of Team Cap, Spoilers, seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-27
Updated: 2018-04-27
Packaged: 2019-04-28 12:57:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14449749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellanka/pseuds/Rellanka
Summary: Infinity War SpoilersStephen Strange didn't just see them win. He saw so much more than that.





	Spring Forward, Fall Back

**Author's Note:**

> Infinity War Spoilers.
> 
> Last Warning.

He springs forward. 

***

Stark is dead, killed by Thanos, stabbed by his own armor in a fit of humorless irony. 

Stephen feels regret, for a moment, a small period of mourning for a man that he had been growing to respect, even like, mostly despite himself. (How many people had been drawn into Stark’s prickly yet magnet orbit in that exact same way? How had they left it?) 

But their plan is ruined, and Stephen’s job is to protect the stone above all else.

He plays the coward and summons the stone to himself and _runs_ , transports himself back to Earth. (To buy the time to think, to plan, to keep the Time Stone from Thanos’ greedy, gluttonous fingers, reaching out for the power of the stone so that he could make himself a benevolent God to a universe gutted and bled to half of itself.

He does grab the boy, even kicking and screaming as he is, to take with him to safety.) 

He leaves the Guardian’s, and hates himself for it.

He joins Stark’s friends(? were they that, still? Stephen hadn’t been part of the ‘group’ before the breaking, but even in the short time he’d interacted with the man he’d seen the toll it had taken on Stark’s psyche.

It was no small thing.)

They welcome him with the desperation of those overwhelmed and trying not to show it, so obviously willing to look anywhere and everywhere for a glimpse of hope. 

Their reactions change, when he tells them about Stark’s death.

Surprisingly so, for some. 

He was expecting Rhodes and Banner to grieve, and they do. 

Even as they try to push past it, even as they try to focus on what’s to come next, they can’t hide how they both fold into themselves that much more, push down their emotions far more firmly, become increasingly driven to find a way to bring Thanos **down**.

He’s expecting the sorrow, the fear, the rage from them.

He isn’t expecting the rest of their reactions. 

He isn’t expecting how it feels like everyone in the room has lost their breath, lost a part of their strength, their hope. 

A part that they really couldn’t afford to lose. 

He isn’t expecting, especially, how Captain America reacts to the news. 

He had thought (many had thought) that there was no love lost between the two men at all. 

But the Captain, who had looked at him with fire (with hope) in his eyes when Stephen had appeared afterwards looks like a dead man walking. 

Like a man that had been holding on for his life to this one last thread, to this one last tie holding him above the abyss. 

(And now Stephen has cut the line, and it seems like it was one loss too many for Steve Rogers.)

***

Thanos comes. 

And it’s not such a surprise anymore, really, when the Avengers fall. 

Or when he falls with them.

***

He falls back. 

***

He springs forward.

***

He grabs one of the Guardian’s this time.

The young, sweet girl. 

The empath.

(The one that was able to stop Thanos in his tracks. )

The one that might be able to, potentially, heal devastating emotional wounds born of loss. 

(To bring focus, to bring clarity.)

It almost works. 

(But not quite.)

***

He falls back.

***

He springs forward.

***

He brings the rest of the Guardian’s, this time.

They still lose.

***

He falls back.

***

He springs forward.

***

Stephen throws his all into bringing Thanos down, facing him with the stone and without.

***

He tries again.

***

And again.

***

And again.

***

He falls back.

***

He springs forward.

***

It…it’s funny, really, the way that his attention starts becoming so incredibly arrested by Stark. 

He can’t… 

He never can stop the fight between Stark and Thanos from happening, from it ending with Stark impaled on his own work. 

There is a permanence to it, an inevitability to it that his magic can’t pierce and the Time Stone’s magic bends from. 

As if it is something written in stone, a turning point that must always come to pass.

(Does the universe really hate Stark so much that they would make such a thing an inescapable fate?)

Maybe it’s this that causes his attention to be so thoroughly caught by Stark, glued to the man until he meets his end and Stephen inevitably flees or fights. 

And things do change, in the different timelines. 

Big or small, things change. 

But these things never change:

Thanos always squares off against Stark. 

And Stark never hesitates to meet him. 

There is a fire, a strength to Stark that is incredible to watch. 

(Stephen finds himself start to draw strength from it, as the endless failures start to take their toll.)

***

He falls back.

***

He springs forward.

***

Until…

Until.

***

He’s tired, is the thing.

Horribly, shamefully, tired of protecting the Time Stone.

Of upholding his duty and seeing Stark fall when he knows (he knows) he can save the man.

So he gives up the Stone.

***

And, as if in punishment, still caught in the Stone’s power, things start going _faster_. 

And Stephen is made a spectator of his own body, rather than the one guiding it.

***

He sees himself turn to ash, and tries to fall back.

He is unable to.

Trapped in the Stone’s power.

Everything is dark, for a period of time.

One that feels both like an eternity and half an expectant breath. 

Light comes, and with it Thanos’ corpse. 

He sees himself meet Stark’s eyes and smile. 

(Strange is smiling himself, relieved and impressed and so full of joy. 

Stark did it. 

Stephen doesn’t know how, but he **did**.)

But Stephen still can’t fall back.

He’s frozen and moving faster than the speed of light, racing through the future still like a train with its brakes on, yet still carried forward by the momentum.

***

He sees…

He sees…

He sees…

***

He sees himself growing close to Stark. 

He sees sparse meetings occurring more, and more, and more…

Becoming less sparse, and more commonplace.

More of his time starts being occupied by Stark, and he…

He sees himself falling in love. 

Moreover… he sees Stark. 

Tony Stark. 

Falling in love with him. 

He learns… so much, and so little about the man.

Information flowing past him so quickly that he can only reach out and grab the smallest fragments in his greedy fists.

He sees happiness. 

So much happiness.

(Happiness that he’d thought he’d never have, given up for a life of duty and magic.)

He sees…

And he wants.

And then.

***

He falls back. 

***

Tony asks him how many times they win, and Stephen looks at him, the future he can’t bear to lose.

“One.”

***

Stephen finally knows what to do.

End

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, I should not be posting this. Really shouldn't. Not only is it an unedited mess, but I have other obligations that REALLY SHOULD BE TAKING PRESEDENCE OVER THIS MUSE (AND SELF). (Especially since I just kind of fell off the social media planet. RL is a bitch, but more on that later.) But my feelings are all over the place, there are some things I am trying to ignore happened in the movie (Loki, Peter, fuckin' GAMORA) so I'm focusing instead on one of the things that actually made me happy (ie Stephen saving Tony) about this movie. And also because people keep saying that it's so weird that Strange would suddenly give up the Time Stone for Tony when he doesn't even like him, when. Dudes. Strange has seen a fuck ton of futures and experienced probably most of them with Tony. (Potentially spending more of them with Tony than just the one.) He knows Tony a heck of a lot better than we realize he does. (Plus, nothing will ever convince me that Stephen didn't at least respect Tony by the time they fought Thanos face to face.)
> 
> But yeah, my mind is all over the place because I'm tired and it's late and I just wanted to get this out there before falling asleep. Prepare for it being seriously edited tomorrow. Please point out any mistakes you see.
> 
> Edit: Huh, so this was more okay than I thought when I posted it. At the very least, I'm fairly satisfied with it. Please still point out any mistakes you see! Thanks so much for the kind replies so far guys, I'm shocked by the number of them, but really, really touched by them at the same time! :D


End file.
